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Forex News – Euro unemployment / inflation, US, UK GDP revisions and Japanese CPI in week ahead

Posted on February 21, 2014 at 1:44 pm GMT

Major headline-grabbing news will probably be absent from the week ahead, as a raft of economic data will illuminate the state of the Eurozone economy and whether Japanese inflation is on course for 1.5%. Revisions to the GDP data of the United States and the United Kingdom will also be closely watched. For the euro, the week kicks off with the German IFO business climate survey for February, expected to be little changed from the previous month’s figure at 110.6, [..]

Forex News – Eurozone PMIs disappoint but still point to continued growth

Posted on February 20, 2014 at 2:28 pm GMT

Eurozone flash Purchasing Manager Indices (PMIs) for February gave mixed signals regarding the region’s economic performance. The indices were worse than expected, both with respect to services as well as manufacturing. Manufacturing output actually dropped to 53 in February from January’s 54, whereas services actually managed to rise slightly to 51.7 from 51.6. Economists had expected the services sub-index to rise even more to 51.9. The composite index came in at 52.7 compared to expectations of 53.1 and a previous [..]

Forex News – UK inflation and unemployment point to less need for early rate hikes

Posted on February 19, 2014 at 12:00 pm GMT

Tuesday’s weaker-than-expected inflation report for January as well as today’s higher-than-expected unemployment rate signaled that those looking for an interest rate hike by the end of the year could be disappointed. First of all, January’s inflation fell to its lowest since November 2009 at 1.9% against analyst expectations of inflation at 2.0%. The Bank of England expects inflation to fall further, according the forecasts contained in the Bank’s Quarterly Inflation Report, bottoming out at 1.7% during March before moving again [..]

Forex News – Bank of Japan keeps loose stance; signals it may do more

Posted on February 18, 2014 at 2:51 pm GMT

The Bank of Japan’s regular monetary policy meeting contained few surprises as the bank retained its pace of asset purchases at around 60-70 trillion yen a year (589-687 billion dollars) or 6-8 trillion yen a month. What the Bank did decide was an increase in a bank lending facility to 7 trillion yen – roughly doubling it. It also extended existing loan facilities that were expiring in June by one year so as to convince banks to make additional loans [..]

European Session – Pound weakens on soft UK inflation data, euro rises despite ZEW

Posted on February 18, 2014 at 2:41 pm GMT

News releases out of the Eurozone and the UK caused some volatility in the currency markets today. German ZEW investors’ confidence data had an initial weakening effect on the euro as the February figure fell to 55.7, down from January’s 61.7 and recorded the second straight monthly drop. Investors in Europe’s largest economy were likely spooked by the emerging market slowdown and recent soft US data. The bright side of the survey was that the current conditions climbed for the [..]

Forex News – Japanese 4th quarter GDP growth misses estimates but news does not hurt yen

Posted on February 17, 2014 at 1:04 pm GMT

Japanese economic growth numbers disappointed earlier in the day, as expectations of quarter-on-quarter GDP growth of 0.7% weren’t met. Growth came out at a much lower 0.3%. For 2013, economic growth averaged slightly more than 1.5%. There were two key reasons for the lower-than-expected growth. First of all, private consumption underperformed by rising 0.5% against expectations of a 0.7% increase. Japanese consumers were expected to ramp up consumption ahead of this April’s sales tax hike from 5% to 8%. Secondly, [..]

Forex News – Yellen, BOJ, UK unemployment and Eurozone flash PMIs in week ahead

Posted on February 14, 2014 at 3:06 pm GMT

Looking ahead it will be a relatively busy week, with important events and releases for the Japanese yen, the British pound and the euro. Strangely enough it will perhaps not be as important for the US dollar although some US events will need to watched. The week will start relatively quietly as Monday is a holiday in the United States. The most important data will come out of Japan, with preliminary 4th quarter GDP. This will be the last of [..]

Forex News – Bank of England revises guidance and raises UK growth outlook

Posted on February 13, 2014 at 11:14 am GMT

Mark Carney’s press conference and the Bank’s quarterly inflation report were the key events of the week for the pound. They both certainly lived up to expectations as the currency rallied strongly on the back of new forecasts made in the report and Mark Carney’s appearance. Going into the conference, the key question was what the Bank was going to do about the ‘pleasant’ sort of headache of UK unemployment falling much faster than anticipated. Back in July of 2013, [..]

Forex News – Japanese current account deficit drops to worst on record in December 2013

Posted on February 10, 2014 at 3:07 pm GMT

(click to enlarge)Japan has historically been an economy that produces huge trade surpluses and therefore enjoys current account surpluses. This in turn has allowed the government and businesses in Japan to enjoy very low interest rates because of the excess savings of Japanese households. However, during December of 2013, the country registered its worst ever current account deficit at 638.6 billion yen. Economists expected the deficit to be around 700 billion yen. November’s deficit was at 592 billion yen. The [..]

Forex News – Markets to hear from Yellen, Carney in the week ahead

Posted on February 7, 2014 at 2:58 pm GMT

Appearances by central bankers such as Yellen, Draghi and Carney together with Eurozone GDP will likely prove the highlights of next week. Traders will focus on whether the markets can stabilize following a rocky start to 2014. Janet Yellen, having just succeeded Ben Bernanke as chair of the Federal Reserve, will testify before the US Congress on Tuesday and Thursday. The testimony by the Fed chair is part of the semi-annual monetary policy report, which is mandated by the Humphrey- [..]

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